The company is facing management defections, a decline in same-store sales and relentless competition from Walmart and Amazon.

Toys “R” Us had first filed to go public in May 2010. An offering would have given its private equity backers an exit from one of the most famous deals of the buyout boom era in the years before the financial crisis. The private equity giants Bain Capital and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company, along with the real estate developer Vornado Realty Trust, acquired the company for $6.6 billion in 2005.

Also on Friday, the company, which operates 1,540 stores, said fourth-quarter net sales fell 2.6 percent, to $5.77 billion. Net earnings for the quarter slid to $239 million, compared with $343 million in the period a year earlier – a decline the company attributed largely to a $34 million increase in interest expenses and a $33 million increase in income tax expenses.

A version of this article appears in print on 03/30/2013, on page B2 of the NewYork edition with the headline: Toys ‘R’ Us Seeks To Withdraw I.P.O. Filing.